Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-10-05
SCIENCE AND MECHANICS.

EXPERIMENTS in the manipulation Of iron
prove that it can be rolled into sheets so
thin that il requires one hundred and fifty
10 make an inch.
STEEL is regarded as superior TO iron in
the manufacture Of rivets for boilers. Gov
ornamental tests have determined its superb
ority on the score Of great ductility and
capacity for local distortion.
IL wooden manufactures Eastwood ranks
low in the scale as q material for outside
building, but as used in the construction of
various small articles il is Of some value.
Eastwood Is known by various names,
among them being linden and bee tree.
A SCIENTIST Is authority for the statement
that whitewash is perfectly non-combust-
iblc. We arc also Informed that it is a
custom in France 10 thicxly coat with lime
wash the beams, joists, tho undersidc Of
1lOOrings and other portions in building to
render them frc-proof. II is quite conf
monty known that whitewashed lumber will
not burn.
PAINTS containing little or no oil when
laid over Thoroughly dry wood seldom bis
ter, as there is nothing for the heat TO
vaporize. Painting that is allowed time TO
harden thoroughly between coats, and that
consists Of cook material, is blister-proof.
When wood is free from moisture before
paint is perfectly dry, tho liability TO blister
ing is confined 10 the surface.
IL the manufacture of lamp chimneys
none but the purest white sand is used,
which is thoroughly clcansed. Pure oxide
is next added, turning the sand rcd and it
then resembles sugar. 1t now goes into
carthen pots with closed tops where it is
melted. When 1t Is in proper condition a
workman gathers some Of the mass upon
the end Of his blow-pipc and after man.
ipulating it into tho designed form it is re-
heated and finished by machinery.
THE absolute dimensions of n globular
star cluster have been studied by the Liver
pool Astronomical Society. These clusters
consist of thousands Of minute stars, posi-
bly, moving about common center of gray
ity. One Of the most remarkable Of these
objects is 10 Messicr, which is thought TO be
about equal TO n frst-magnitude star. As
tronomcrs have estimated that it is made up
OF 1900 stars. Assuming the total mass az
equal 10 twice tho suns, the average diam
eter OF each Of these componentS must be
1928 miles, and each star in this wonderful
group may be separated from the next by a
distance OF nine thousand million miles.
By means Of the new and ingenious little
instrument known as the hyalolyphotypc, or
hot pen, drawings can now be made on glass
or glossy substances with waxy compost
ton, which is solid and somewhat hard ut
ordinary temperatures. The pen is so con-
trived that it can be heated by either gas or
an electric current, and the waxy material
flows easily from the heated pen, setting so
quickly on the glass that cross Matching can
DO done moro rapidly than with ordinary
pen and ink, without risk Of blocking up the
angles; corrections, too, can be made more
readily and easily by means OF a penknifc,
which leaves the surface aftcrward intact.
After the drawing has been made in this
manner, the next operation il that of etch-
ing the plato by means Of nuoric acid, and,
when it is complete, il can be- either electro
typed, stcrotyped, used direct, or applied 10
any Of the purposes for which engraved sur
faces are available